Beauty and the Beast
by Shreiking Beauty
Summary: Credence Barebone leaves his quiet village to find his sisters, who had gone missing in the woods. He finds them in an old castle, the home of a terrifying beast, that accepts his offer to replace his sisters as his prisoner. Gradence, Gravebone, slash, AU


Credence Barebone left the little church early, when the sun hadn't yet come up, but the sky was light and the world was bathed in a blue glow. Most of the town was still asleep, and anyone awake at this hour was rubbing the sleep out of their eyes or stretching out in the kitchen before beginning to prepare breakfast.

It was a long enough trek from the church to the bookstore that by the time he arrived, the sun had peaked over the distant hills and people were beginning to go about their business, opening the shops and greeting their neighbors. Credence headed straight for the bookstore.

He was meant to hand out flyers for the church and, on some days, use their meager donations to buy ingredients for the family's meals and for churchly purposes, but everyone in the town had seen the flyers and knew their message, and anyone who took them did so out of pity for the poor boy. This meant that Credence spent many hours standing on a street corner uselessly holding out the same untaken pamphlet.

Mary Lou had been distracted in the past months, no longer devoting her efforts to tormenting Credence's every waking moment, and this allowed him some small pleasures. He spent the early morning hours, when Mary Lou was busy attending to business at the church, holed up in the book shop. The owner knew he had no money to buy the books, but took delight in his desire to read, and allowed him to read anything he pleased.

He liked to read adventure and romance novels, fictional stories about people who went out and experienced the world, and who found someone to share their experiences with, which was something Credence wanted more than anything.

The book shop owner greeted him warmly this morning, laughing affectionately when Credence chose a well-worn book from the shelf.

"That one again?" he asked good-naturedly.

"It's my favorite," Credence admitted shyly.

"If you like it all that much, why don't you keep it? I won't charge you for it!"

"That's so kind of you, sir, but you know how my mother regards this kind of literature. She would take it from me and burn it, I wouldn't want that to happen."

"I'll keep it here for you!" he offered. "I'll take it off the shelf so you can come in and read it whenever you want, it'll be our little secret!"

Credence was overwhelmingly grateful for the man's generosity. He let him sit and read by the light of the window for a while, then tucked the book away in a secret corner with a note inside saying 'property of Credence Barebone'.

Handing out the flyers wasn't as horrible as it usually was. Credence spent the time thinking about his book, how it belonged to him now, just the joy of having something that was his _property._ The day was bright and sunny, but a cool autumn breeze kept him from overheating in his black jacket. The air smelled crisp and earthy, and every forty minutes or so, the baker would bring out a fresh batch of baked treats, adding its aroma to the breeze.

Obviously, such a perfect day wouldn't last, Credence knew. He cringed when he heard the loud, obnoxious voice of Gellert Grindelwald, returning to town with his hunting party that had left before sunrise when the animals were still out. As usual, he was followed by his lackeys carting his kill, which looked to be a large, impressive elk.

Impressive to everyone except Credence. It made him sick to see him go out and kill innocent animals like a sport. He ate the meat sometimes, but only to brag about its taste and quality, and he kept the furs to decorate his home instead of donating or selling them to help the town. It disturbed Credence greatly when he had the head taxidermized and mounted on his wall. He couldn't help imagining his own head, long after his soul had left his body, put on display by Grindelwald as a reminder of the life he had taken.

That's what Credence felt like when Grindelwald looked at him, with his cold, calculating eyes; like he was being stalked by a predator.

When Grindelwald laid eyes on Credence, he smiled greedily and excused himself from the excited group of his admirers to approach him.

"Credence, my dear. Come and see the spoils of my hunt; if you'd like, I may make you a coat out of its fur."

"It is a sin to kill God's creatures!" Credence snapped venomously. Grindelwald was well aware of his aversions to his activities, and purposefully taunted him about it.

"God put the creatures on Earth for us to make use of!" he retorted with amusement.

"Killing them for fun is not useful. At least you could give the furs and meat to the poor children, but no, you keep it for yourself."

"If the children want meat and fur, they should hunt for themselves. And if I were you, I wouldn't make a habit of saying such things to me."

Credence narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Are you threatening me?" he asked, trying to sound confident, but betraying his fear.

"Oh, no, dear boy. I was only letting you know that soon you may find yourself in my care, at which time I won't be so forgiving for such rude remarks."

"W-what do you mean?"

"Your mother and I have been speaking, Credence. She is far too busy with her growing church to take care of her mentally challenged adult son. I have generously offered to relieve her of this burden."

Credence started at him in shock for a moment. "I-I am not retarded . . . if Ma can no longer support me, I'll go to the city and get a job, I can take care of myself! I only stay with her because she says she needs help with the church!"

"Aw, don't upset yourself, pretty boy!" Grindelwald said in a falsely sweet tone, putting his arm around Credence's slight shoulders. "I will take very good care of you! You'll have fine clothes, a large kitchen to cook meals for me, a _very_ warm bed – and I'll teach you how to skin and gut my kills to cook the meat –"

Credence pushed his arm off his shoulder and hurled himself away from him. "You're disgusting! I will never live with you!"

He stomped quickly up the road to the church, ducking his head and ignoring the cat-calls of Grindelwald's fanatics that taunted him as he fled. He was too upset to care that he hadn't handed out even half of the stack of leaflets he had, torn between confronting his mother about the issue and risking her harsh retaliation, or simply lying low and staying out of her way so that the idea would be put out of her mind.

As he quietly entered the church, he heard his sisters talking with Mary Lou.

"Why not?" Modesty whined.

"I could use her help," Chastity added. "We'd be back before nightfall, and you'll have Credence here to help with Modesty's chores."

"Alright, alright, but no stopping for frivolities. I will give you a little extra money so you can each get a sandwich to eat on your way back, the rest is for the supplies only. No candy, Modesty."

"I'll be good, I promise!" Modesty said cheerfully.

"Get going, you'll have to hurry to be home before dark."

Credence waited in the back hall while Chastity and Modesty hurried to get their things together for the four-hour journey into the city, a trip Chastity made every other month or so to get printing supplies for their leaflets, and anything else the church might need that the little village didn't offer. After they had left, Credence came into the room where his mother was cleaning the printing press.

"Credence, you're back early," she said in an irritated tone. "And I see you didn't finish handing out the leaflets. Why are you here?"

"Mr. Grindelwald spoke with me today," Credence murmured, trying to keep the accusation out of his tone.

Mary Lou sighed heavily. "I suppose he mentioned our discussion? You didn't think I would be able to support you here forever, did you?"

Credence's thoughts flew to Chastity, who was older than him by a year and several months, but he had long understood that his and Chastity's treatment were vastly different. "If you want me to leave, you needn't worry yourself over the arrangements. I am an adult, I can find work and housing on my own."

She let out a pitiful laugh at that. "Credence, you know nothing of the world. People are not kind and helpful to strangers, they don't give handouts. And what do you have to offer? An uneducated simpleton, with no work skills, no experience? My kindness is the only thing keeping you from selling your body on the streets, that is all you are fit for."

Her words stung Credence worse than the belt, and he felt his eyes grow hot, but refused to let the tears fall. "I'm not stupid. I can read and write, I can learn skills. Even so, if you throw me out it will be my problem, not yours. You can put it out of your mind."

Mary Lou stopped working and stood to face him head on. "Credence, I took you from the orphanage to save your soul, and you have refused to let me do so. As a good Christian woman, I cannot throw you to the wolves like this. If Mr. Grindelwald makes up his mind that he wants to take you in, you _will_ go with him."

Unable to face his mother with his tears, Credence ran out of the room and up the stairs to the small closet that served as his bedroom and collapsed on the bed, letting angry and hurt tears fall freely. He cried for a while, he didn't know how long, before Mary Lou called him downstairs impatiently, setting him to finish his own chores as well as his sisters'. He completed his work silently, not looking at Mary Lou, even when she sat down to eat her dinner without offering him anything or indicating that he was allowed to eat.

Stewing about his own problems, he hadn't noticed the darkening sky, until his mother opened the door to look up the road, growling "where _are_ those girls!" to herself.

He soon forgot his own troubles worrying over his sisters. They had to travel through the forest, safe and familiar by light, but under cover of darkness, the threat of wolves and thieves and getting lost grew exponentially.

"Do you think something happened?" Credence asked quietly. Chastity had made the trip alone many times before, and had never been late arriving home.

"I'm sure Modesty succumbed to her childish whims and made them both late," she snapped heartlessly. "She does not yet understand the evils of the world."

The time came and passed when Credence usually went to bed, but he could not find it in himself to even put on his pajamas when his sisters were missing in the dark forest.

As he paced across the front room, chewing on his fingernails anxiously, he was startled to hear the sound of heavy galloping, and hurried outside to investigate. The church's horse was rushing up the road, pulling their cart behind it, but with an icy chill of terror, Credence realized his sisters were not on it.

Credence calmed the horse and examined the cart. The supplies Chastity had been sent for were secured in the back, in a bit of disarray from the rough galloping, so he knew that they had at least made it to the city. By then, Mary Lou had come outside as well.

"You must go find your sisters at once!" she hollered at Credence as he untied the horse's harness from the cart, not needing to be ordered to do so. She handed him a lantern after he had mounted their horse, and sped off into the forest.


End file.
